Puliyodharai:(Iyengar Style)

Authentic Iyengar Puliyodharai. Kovil Puliyodarai. Tamarind Rice. Puliyora. Pulihogare. Puliyodharai. Puli Saadham.

Ingredients:

Tamarind cricket ball size
Sesame oil 3-5 cups
Mustard seeds 3 -5 Spoons
Curry leaves 1 large bowlful
Asafoetida 2 spoons
Chana dal 1 cup
Urad dal 1 cup
Dry red chilies 30 numbers
Turmeric powder 2-3 spoons(instead of powder…I use ‘virali manjal’ back there)
Cashew nuts 30 Numbers
Salt
Rice 3 cups

To Be Roasted Each Separately And Powdered Together:(Puliyodarai Podi)

Coriander seeds 1 cup
Chana dal 1 cup
Curry leaves 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds 2 spoons
Dry red chilies 10
Asafoetida 2 spoons

Store this powder in air tight container.

1. In a pressure cooker add rice, enough salt and add 6 cups of water. One can add few spoons of oil too. Pressure cook till 3 whistles. Once it is done. Spread the cooked rice in wide tray and set this under fan. Allow it to cool down, for separated and stiff rice.

2. In a bowl soak tamarind with 1-2 cups of water for 1-2 hours. In a blender run this along with the same soaked water and extract a thick tamarind milk.

3. In a heavy bottomed non-stick pan, heat 1 cup of oil.

4. Add mustard 2 spoons, chana dal, Urad dal, cashew nuts and curry leaves. Add one by one each in the above said sequence. First add mustard and wait till it splutters. Next dal and cashew….wait till they get fried up to reddish color. Now add curry leaves….fry them till crisp. Set this aside.

5. In the same pan, heat another cup of oil. Add 1 spoon of mustard. Let it splutter well. Add asafoetida 2 spoons and followed bu red chilies. Fry them for a while.

6. Now add salt, turmeric to this and followed by thick tamarind milk. Cover and cook on medium flame. Maybe it takes time. More than 45 minutes or so.

7. Once the tamarind milk consolidates to thick paste add the seasoning said in step 4 above along with that fried oil too. Let them boil once. Remove this from stove. Maybe after cooling down, one can store this in ceramic jar for later use.

8. To the separated stiff rice add this above tamarind paste and few spoons of powdered Puliyodarai podi. Mix this well and set aside for 3-5 hours.

Serve this after 3-5 hours.